<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Send Me Away, and I'll Come Running Back by I_Swear_Its_Just_Me</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24928051">Send Me Away, and I'll Come Running Back</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Swear_Its_Just_Me/pseuds/I_Swear_Its_Just_Me'>I_Swear_Its_Just_Me</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gotham (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Because let's be honest it's better this way, Bruce Wayne Needs a Hug, Depression, Eating Disorders, Ecco is the Best, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Idiots in Love, Jeremiah Never Falls into the Acid, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Minor Selina Kyle/Ecco, Sort of? I'm not entirely sure, Tags Subject to Change, This is a real mess but I'm trying folks, Weird Dreams/Nightmares, Work In Progress, enemies to idiots to lovers, inconsistent updates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:00:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>841</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24928051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Swear_Its_Just_Me/pseuds/I_Swear_Its_Just_Me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What might have been, had Jeremiah not fallen into the vat of acid.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alfred Pennyworth &amp; Bruce Wayne, Ecco &amp; Jeremiah Valeska, Jeremiah Valeska &amp; Bruce Wayne, Jeremiah Valeska/Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon &amp; Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle &amp; Bruce Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Send Me Away, and I'll Come Running Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The fight on the scaffolding leads to an Emotional™ experience</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter title from Atlantis by Seafret</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You mean <em> nothing </em> to me." Bruce seethed, gripping Jeremiah's lapels tightly and straddling his waist. Were it not for the venom that had fallen from Bruce's lips, it could've been enjoyable.</p><p> </p><p>He froze for a minute. They were suspended in time for just a moment, the loud silence only broken by the frothing acid below. Neither could believe that Bruce had said something so… so <em> cruel. </em></p><p> </p><p>And then it registered. </p><p> </p><p>And oh fuck, that<em> hurt. </em></p><p> </p><p>Bruce's words felt like knives ripping through his skin, stabbing deep into his lungs and twisting. Jeremiah couldn't breathe. He swung his head up, striking Bruce in the jaw. Bruce scrambled to his feet and a few steps back, dazed for a moment.</p><p> </p><p>Jeremiah still laid on the floor, elbows digging into the harsh grate of the scaffolding, and felt a wave of emotion crash over him. He just wanted Bruce to love him, or hate him--just feel <em> something </em> for him--and his indifference hurt more than any of the punches he'd previously thrown.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce stood rigidly, poised as if waiting for Jeremiah to strike again. Jeremiah stood slowly, eyes watering, legs trembling.</p><p> </p><p>"Why don't you <em> understand </em>?" Jeremiah asked quietly, brokenly. The acid below them bubbled, a distant threat compared to the near-breaking dam behind Jeremiah's eyes. He took one, two, three steps forward and stopped, a limp making itself known with every step. Bruce countered by stepping back the same amount.</p><p> </p><p>A hot, salty tear raced down Jeremiah's face, pale green eyes searching and desperate. Pleading for something to build off of, to grasp onto, so as not to fall. He found no such stabilizer. He began shaking.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce stood his ground, maintaining eye-contact. His face was smooth, betraying no emotion. His eyes, once warm and friendly--the only light in Jeremiah's spiral towards darkness--had turned cold and hard, matching the icy blue color of his irises. There was nothing left of the inviting warmth, only a void for which Jeremiah felt simultaneously repulsed by and drawn to. Like a moth to a flame that had already burned its delicate wings.</p><p> </p><p>Something else raged behind his eyes, deeper than Jeremiah could see. Guilt or sadness or heartbreak or regret--any one of those would suffice, but perhaps all lingered in Bruce's heart as he watched his once-friend openly weep. There was a time when he might have wiped away the tears with his own hands or held onto the other firmly until they stopped, but those days were gone, replaced with only bittersweet memories and time neither of them could get back.</p><p> </p><p>Jeremiah's heart clenched as he choked on a sob. A gloved hand came up to cover his mouth, another instinctively wrapped protectively around his middle, as if it would shield him from his own emotions. Jeremiah glanced down, viewing the acid with a troubled expression for only a moment. More tears flooded his eyes, and he <em> hated </em> it.</p><p> </p><p>He turned on his heel and ran. Bruce let him go this time.</p><p> </p><p>⚛⚛⚛</p><p> </p><p>"What do you mean, <em> 'he got away' </em>?" Captain Gordon questioned, angry. And rightfully so.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce scrambled for an answer desperately. "I had him, and then he swung and hit me pretty hard. I was dazed and he ran." None of this was <em> technically </em> a lie, but Bruce felt guilty for it all the same.</p><p> </p><p>But what was he supposed to say to Jim? <em> 'Oh yeah, you know that guy who shot Selina, blew the bridges, and almost killed you and Lee? Yeah, I let him go because he started crying and I couldn't handle it.' </em> Right. Like that would go over well. Besides, who would really notice a little white lie? It's not as if anyone else but Jeremiah was there to witness the events that had unfolded.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce tried not to think about it too much, but it was incredibly difficult--the image of Jeremiah crying and begging in that broken voice--it hurt. It hurt <em> a lot </em>.</p><p> </p><p>Bruce had tried so hard to keep his face neutral, to not let Jeremiah know that he actually <em> did </em> care. He'd had to restrain himself from running after him and offering the psycho <em> comfort </em>--it was too much.</p><p> </p><p>That night, as he lay in his bed in the apartment he and Alfred had laid claim to after the bridges blew, he found himself missing Jeremiah--the soft, sassy, brilliant redhead with a smile that could make anyone weak in the knees. The Jeremiah he had encountered today wasn't the Jeremiah he knew or wanted, but the sheer <em> humanity </em> that had crept into the abnormally pale face while he had pleaded with Bruce to understand--understand <em> what </em>, Bruce wondered--was almost reminiscent of the old him. The him that Bruce had been friends with, joking with and telling the other about their own inner machinations while they worked on the generator prototype--the prototype that had been manipulated into a bomb that nearly killed Gordon, and the rest of them turned against Gotham itself.</p><p> </p><p>His sleep wasn't peaceful, to say the least</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>